Along with the continuous development of online games, more and more Netizens have become regular players of the online games. At present, online chess and card games are mainstream online games and are usually carried out based on the Instant Messaging (IM) platform. The basic work flow of present online chess and card games is explained as follows.
When a user logs in a game platform, the user accesses a directory list of all online games and relevant information of each of the online games from a directory server (Dir-Svr). The relevant information of each of the online games includes number of game rooms and number of players in each of the game rooms. A game room is actually a game server (Game-Svr) to the user. The user may choose a game room in a game, i.e., a game server to log in. The game server is adapted to provide game service applications and save information of all players playing games on the game server. The information of all the players includes the number of times they have played and scores they have got. The information of the players is obtained from a background database server (DB-Svr), and changed information of each player will be saved by the DB-Svr. For example, in an online card game, before starting a round of game, the user needs to choose a table and wait for an adequate number of other players to come to the table and start the game after receiving agreements from the other players. A game service application running on the game server randomly distributes playing cards to the players and transmits the information of cards put on the table by one player to client terminals of the other three players for display. At the end of a round, the game service application determines results according to game rules and writes the latest information of the players into the DB-Svr. The players are all users playing the games.
In online chess and card games, cheat is commonly seen. At present, an online chess or card game in which the cheat may happen need at least four players. The at least four players are divided into two sides opposing each other, i.e. the players on the same side are partners and the players on different sides are opponents. In a fair game, the players should not learn deals on other players' hands beforehand. However, online games are special in that two partners may inform each other, via instant messenger or similar messaging tools, of deals on hand and discuss strategies, and which violates rules of fair play in the game. For example, in a card game of four players, players sitting at a table facing each other are usually supposed to be partners. Two players ready to cheat may deliberately choose the same table and seats facing each other at the table in the game. Therefore, the players can inform each other of deals on hand in the game for the purpose of cheating. The messaging tools mainly include instant messaging tools.
Technical measures need to be taken to prevent such cheat. The present online chess and card games provide a kind of cheat prevention technology, i.e. a player cannot choose a seat at a table after entering a game room and a game service application assigns a seat to the player at random, and the player cannot learn information of other players. In this way, cheating players cannot choose to sit on the same table as partners by their own will in the game because a player cannot choose his/her partner in the game and it is thus unnecessary and impossible for the players to pass cheating information to others.
However, the inventor of the present invention finds that a user may wish to choose a friend as a partner in a game in many occasions and the present cheat prevention technology just fails to satisfy such wish of the user.